I love all the natural creations, but Smartweeds (Persicaria) are my thing. Actually, they chose me. Years ago there was one growing in a weedy patch near my office in the Bronx that defied identification. Two years of research revealed it was an exotic from the Russian Far East that had quietly spread, undetected for sixty years throughout the Northeastern US. Persicaria extremiorientalis is now known from Maine to the Carolinas, west to Michigan.

I'm sticking with Smartweeds because they are underdogs of the plant world-- they have weed in their name, after all! They are also beautiful and enigmatic. They present many unanswered questions and few were willing to take up the challenges. Botanists are still debating whether the ocreae--the defining feature of the subfamily Polygonoideae (with about 550 species and over 1 million observations)-- are modified stipules or leaf sheaths. I'm leaning toward leaf sheaths. Since 2010, I've discovered three Persicaria additions to the flora of North America.

See the Guide to Smartweeds (Persicaria) of North America here.

I retired in 2021 after nearly three decades of plant collecting and research at the New York Botanical Garden.

I teach the course Pressing Plants for Art and Science.

Publications in Plant Science

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